25 Aug 2007

Mera US...err Bharat Mahan !!!

We shout that rhetoric about 'Great India', 'India Shining', 'Mera Bharat Mahan', 'The great Indian Culture', 'The great Indian Legacy', 'Argumentative Indian' (and while saying so projecting Indians as having an inherently logical bent of mind and basing the reason of sustained democracy on this) , etc., yet most of us today want to emulate Americans. Why?

Perhaps rightly so. For the most prized virtues of humans. A free life, a liberal and tolerant society, for the largely unpretentious way of life of theirs, innovative and independent thinking and what not. You name an area of human behaviour where Indian are doing better than them today.

One problem, then, is with the rhetoric about priding ourselves on our false sense of greatness and morality. Patting ourselves on the age old legacy which can do nothing for us today. It's failing to even inspire us today. The problem is in deluding ourselves. And then, when I tried to brush this off by saying that the younger generation was being more practical about it, came the independence day and I was perplexed to see all those colorful handwritten slogans of Great India, Mera Bharat Mahan, and proud to be an Indian on big charts pasted everywhere in our office. And the people writing them were our young generation...the more practical one. I wondered if any of them ever gave it a serious thought that what exactly is it today that is an evidence of India being great? True I am born an Indian and I do love my country. But that for emotional reasons. My family is here. My sweetest childhood memories are associated with this land, with all those pit covered roads, and rural dust. I learned what life is in this country and from its point of view. My love is precisely because of this. But otherwise, for a moment, disregarding the emotional attachments and on any logical grounds, I flounder to find even a handful of good reasons for considering India a great country in today's perspective.

1. Look at our farmers committing suicides and what everyone is doing about it? What the ancient great India can do about it today?

Our governments are setting up panels to propose remedies only to be ill implemented either in the lack of funds or the lack of will or because of rampant corruption. And what are we doing? You and I? Cursing the government? Why don't we join some NGO and try to do something about it the way Arvind Kejriwal did for RTI ? He was just like you and I, an IIT engineer, not a tailor cut-out by birth for social causes and politics.

Then the noninclusive growth. What great is he who is content to see one of its hands starving and paralyzing while the other hand grows stronger. How powerful such an asymmetric person can be in crucial times is any body's guess. Those who have studied the growth of Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the likes would most obviously see the differences between their and India's path.

2. Look at the state of education in our country? and then look at the way we are trying to make it better...the reservations instead of emphasizing on primary education.

3. Look at the booming IT industry of India. Now that's one area which makes every Indian proud today..right? But not the people who reject anything based on mass opinion until it's logical to them. I'll tell u a model of mine to facilitate seeing the kind of work we are bringing from all over the world to our IT companies in proper perspective.

US is a rich household whose members work in big and quality firms and do quality work. When I say quality I mean some work which appeals to the unique human capability, it's brain. And when this household goes about its daily chores, it produces some waste, some garbage, some dirty dishes to be cleaned, some dirty floors. Here's where India comes in. We go knocking their door and offering to clean-up their mess, washing their dishes, sweeping their floors for much smaller amount than the person in their own area would ask for. What else would they have wanted ! They are in. When they earn 35000 a month and buy their child a laptop, an N73, a Skoda, we take home Rs. 1000 and buy our child a balloon, a Nokia1100, and a second hand Maruti 800. And despite this we happen to be better off than most of those living in our colony who are using their old bicycles and who were not fortunate enough to beg a work in the US households. That's the quality of work we do and that's the comparative amount we get paid for this. And then slowly when traders everywhere begin to see us being able to buy all those second hand Maruti 800s and Nokia 1100, they begin to see our rising prosperity (??), they hike the prices of everything for us too (read inflation and currency appreciation) and then we can not even buy a Maruti 800 because our wage remains the same (Why? If we ask for a higher wage they would be happy to kick us out altogether and bring someone by the name of Okawa Hounsos, an African, to do the same).

4. Look at the way our intellectuals are hostages to their language and everything associated with them. Of course I agree it's good to try to pick up everything good but then first for God sake we must accept our own weaknesses. We must drop this rhetoric about our sacred relationships when we know in the corners of our minds that a DPS MMS scandel is going on in every college and every senior school these days in all cities, big or small. The difference is just that these children are sensible enough not to send that MMS to their friends. I repeatedly write in my posts the use of English language between even the spouses in as private places as one's bedroom. Now this is something that need not be emulated. Whereas English is a great language, it by no means is a better way of attaining a better standard of living, or an even higher intellectual level or whatever such people might think it capable of doing for them than our Hindi is.

5. And then look at the extent to which we go copying them in their language. Our version of christ is our own God. Right? but look at so many of us saying 'For Christ sake' whenever we get chance. For God sake pal, you worship a God every morning. Use your mind a bit. Another one in this category is the word 'Christened'. In various news columns and from many people I hear the sentence like 'XYZ was christened as ABC'. Now what the mindless thing to say for us Indians that is. Their ceremony to name a child involves inducing it to Christianity from that day on. In our case a child belongs to its dad's religion from the day it is born. As with Western society, in India too the same applies to non living objects too. Whereas a Robotic Arm Software might have been christened as RoboArm by students at MIT, it would be named as RoboArm at IIT, how can you christen it if it belongs to the religion of the majority of Indians. But that would have been thought by us, had we applied our 'Argumentative Indian' philosophy to this sentence too. But who does. The Americans use it. I watched it in the latest hollywood blockbuster. It sounds urbane. Hats off to ya pal ! I bow to us INDIANS. India is great.

21 Aug 2007

I am young...till today becomes yesterday

To wayward minds like mine...act before it's too late..

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering
experience…I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you
imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with
people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes
you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with
yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you
succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body,
use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever
own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you
knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will
look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen…

-- From Baz Luhrmann Lyrics - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

13 Aug 2007

Predicaments of a loser

'Sir tomorrow onwards I would give you a missed call 5 minutes before I am about to reach here. If you are coming then it's okay else you give me a missed call back' Said Guddu, the driver of my office cab as I got into the cab, late by 5 minutes. Mine was the first pick-up.
'Yeah. Sure' I said and grunted to myself. 'How would he know' I convinced myself.

'Arre yaar, your pick-up is before mine. Please give me a missed call when you are about to reach here'
'Yeah sure Anjali' Anything for you. I didn't say the second line as I watched her with admiration get into the cab. That she was expected to know this didn't occur to me mesmerized by her rare-engineer-beauty which had permanently reserved my dreams for itself.

'And yeah Sunita, give me a missed call when you go for lunch. I'll come with you' I overheard the receptionist with bob-cut hair say to her friend over the company phone as I passed the reception desk on my way to my shared cubicle meant for one, occupied by two. Cost cutting you see. Rupee is appreciating.
But the receptionist was supposed to know. It’s her job to speak. And by the way everything of her tells me that she is going to take part in next year's Ms. India contest. These are the basics.

'Hi dada' A chat window was flashing in the status bar of my desktop showing a message from my sweetheart of one year who was with me in my previous project. No ideas you dirty mind! I am still single and looking. His name is Ravi. Ravi Agarwal.
'Hi dada. Kaise ho' I replied.
'Wah dada. Late again'
'Yeah. So many mummies in our cab. Got delayed'
'Hehehe dada. When you are free, just missed call me. I have to discuss something with you'
'Yeah dada' Tum bhi !

'Hi Bhai. Why did you pick up the phone. I don't have balance. YOU are expected to call me. I was just giving you a missed call'
'Ao okay. You put it down. I would call you' I apologized to my sister as I looked at my phone in desperation. Yeh Bhi !

That's 'Missed Call'
a noun
a verb
and who on earth says it's an adjective phrase!

Loser!
I wrote under my name on a paper pinned to my cubicle wall.

Rogue uncertainties...Thou perishes; Remains thee

Eternity of the universe stretches far beyond the human contemplation. The light that we just received from that faraway star began from it about a million years ago. It was for the dinosaurs. Unfortunately they couldn't last to receive it. So we received it today on their behalf. But wait! If we could communicate with our sender by, may be a mobile phone, it would have perplexed our sender that this streak of light is not the same color as he sent for us. Why? Ah yes. The sender is receding from us. Distances are increasing. Wavelengths are changing. Things are going away from things. Universe is expanding.

Expanding! But where?

Volume encloses volume. Did we just say that its volume is increasing? But what's volume is it occupying? Is there a space outside the universe? Where is it expanding into? What's outside it? And what’s outside the volume that’s outside it. Where does the hierarchy end? You thought you knew the definition of space? So tell me what is the nature of space this whole thing occupies?

And did it appear suddenly out of something? Who created elements that constitute it? Nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon? Did God? Out of what? What did he have with him to create all the elements? And who supplied him with those things. He conjured these? Also who created God to enable creation of elements? There must have been something behind God. Such a mystic power that could conjure material out of immaterial must have been thought of well in its design phase before its actual manufacture. What?? he appeared out of nowhere? Hmm. So he appeared suddenly. And he appeared into some enclosing space. And that space was here before the God. Then what is that space? What's its nature?

Everything is material in this world. Money, comfort, luxury, everything. And so is a Stone. Clay. Water. Stars. All are material. One day this game will finish. we would die. Everybody would die. God will kill himself. Everything would come to an end. Will the universe remain? will it? We won't be there. God won't be there. But a deserted universe. The ever expanding. What into? And what for? Whom for? Does life have another dimension? Human life has vanished. God's life has ceased existing. But he once created a universe. THAT is living. Fattening. What is a stone then? Some thing that outlived us and God! So it lived? Is it up higher in the hierarchy than the God then? because God has died. But the stones remain. Receding away from each other.

Ah. Maybe stones are not above God after all. So God destroyed stones and the universe before he killed himself. The universe suddenly disappeared. God remained for a while. But what into? What is the thing that enclosed God for that while. And then God killed himself. For as long as he remained he needed that space to contain him. And when he killed himself, of course he wasn't there to destroy that thing which contained him. So something outlived God then? In that case its above God in the hierarchy! So what’s this thing then? That’s what is more important. And what encloses this thing? Wait. This thing that contains God might be vacuum. Vacuum? Vacuum existed before God suddenly appeared. And vacuum remained after God died.

But if at first it was vacuum and suddenly God appeared. Did it happen by magic? Magic? But magic is a mysterious power possessed by some thing that exists. What existed to do that magic of sudden appearance of God? There wasn't a single thing there in vacuum. What lobbied with what to create God.

And then what’s a vacuum? Isn't vacuum contained in a space? A space with nothing inside?